Torch Song Trilogy
Torch Song Trilogy
By Harvey Fierstein
Directed by Wade Hair
Starring Joshua Eads-Brown, J. R. Barnhill, Sean Patrick Casey
Breakthrough Theatre, Winter Park Fl</strong>
Possibly the most chilling words in any relation are “We need to talk”. Only a testy “It’s time to change the subject” indicates a more serious problem. Both phrases appear much more often than necessary in this rambling and occasionally sensible four way romance. Arnold (Eads-Brown) slogs away in the sequined shit box of NYC drag, and one night he picks up the closeted bisexual Ed (Barnhill). It’s a quickie romance, after a mere two weeks broken hearts litter the sidewalk and both are heading in opposite directions – Ed to an upstate farmstead and heterosexual ambiguity with Laurel (Penny Mathis) and Arnold to boytoy hotness with overly tattooed Alan (Carey). A botchy and not nearly-kinky-as-it-sounds four way weekend reveals everyone’s innermost desires – Arnold wants love, Ed wants sex, Alan wants romance, and Lauren has a knack for getting the booby prize on the bisexual dating game. Lurid as all this might be, it takes the third act to bring us past the guilty pleasure of secret romance. That’s where we meet Arnold’s strident Jewish mother (Judith Gill) and his early teen take home project, battered adoptee David (Avery Chester). For 14 going on 31, this boy is way too world-wise, but he does get almost all the killer lines.
Considering the melodramatic dialog these actors had to claw though, they did an acceptable job. Eads-Brown carried the weight of this bloated script; he was alternately touching and pathetic as a queen who needed abuse to fulfill his self selected role of gay martyr to the world. Opposite him was a rather flat J. R. Barnhill who never seemed passionate about either sexual pathway – pay for gay and pay for straight seemed equally weighted, but he voted with his penis to stay with the Laurel and avoid telling mom and dad the bad news. Chester’s David, while seeming overly sophisticated even for a boy with hustling cred, got every laugh he was assigned, and I was impressed with his comic timing. Arnold’s mother, Mrs. Beckhoff (Gill) was very much the uber-Jewish mother with her schmaltz jar of guilt to slather on even the most insignificant action. There wasn’t much subtlety here, she charged in blaming Arnold for everything from her varicose veins to a bad seat in coach. If I were Arnold, I would have jumped out the window before I’d let her in the apartment.
While “Torch Song Trilogy” captures the kitchen sink drama of its denizen’s sordid little lives, it suffers from writer’s bloat and frequent recourse to soap opera bluntness and badge wearing characterization. At the end of the second intermission, I told my date “I hate ALL these people” but I softened my assessment after the last act to “Thank God they’re only this way on stage”. While parts of the play will break your heart, at some point you’ll want to break everyone’s neck. Take a deep breath and count to ten before you return to the lobby to shake hands.
For more information, please visit http://www.breakthroughtheatre.com
